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I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

A broken system?

Among the claims Brazile makes about the current state of the Democratic Party is the charge that President Barack Obama left it in very poor financial shape.

“Obama left the party $24 million in debt — $15 million in bank debt and more than $8 million owed to vendors after the 2012 campaign — and [the party] had been paying that off very slowly,” Brazile wrote.

A spokesman for the former president's office did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.

\"PHOTO:
Richard Brian/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and political strategist, speaks during the SALT conference in Las Vegas, May 18, 2017.
>

Others disagree.

“It is dramatic overstatement to say that President Obama bankrupted the party. The fundraisers the president did were some of the best that happened for the party,\"said R.T. Rybak, a former mayor of Minneapolis and a former vice chairman of the party.

Julian Zelizer, a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University, says it’s not abnormal for a party to have to recover after a two-term president, but that the current division within the party after 2016 is more severe.

“It is true that usually when a two-term president leaves that his party often is in trouble, but I think there are many who agree that this is on the worst side of the spectrum, and so the party is paying a price for it,” Zelizer said.

Zelizer also said instead of arguing about the 2016 election, Democrats should focus on a more universally agreed upon target.

“I think the best thing [Democrats] can do is to keep the focus on President Trump, who all Democrats would probably agree is not good for the country,”

A case for reform

Zogby told ABC News he hoped Brazile’s book would buttress reform efforts.

“If we do not reform, we cannot unify and if we cannot unify we cannot win. So to me reform is simply a way of bringing the factions of the party together so we can function as a unified whole,” he told ABC News.

As a member of the unity commission charged with helping reform the party, Zogby and other members of the panel appointed by Sen. Sanders have been pushing for a stronger and more transparent governance structure.

Specifically, they suggest options such as an open and transparent budget that will be proposed and voted on by the executive committee, an internal judicial review board, budget oversight committee, and a ban on conflicts of interest.

Zogby argues a judiciary review board would allow candidates or state officers who have grievances a place to be heard internally.

“If we do not create structures to solve these problems in-house then the only time we ever get to deal with problems is when they break in the news … a scandal or a problem and then we have to address it,” he said.

Other members of the unity commission speculate the reason there has been pushback on budget transparency is because too many paid consultants also have holding voting power in the party.

\"PHOTO:
Andrew Harnik/AP, FILE
PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pauses while speaking at a rally in Pittsburgh during a bus tour through the rust belt, July 30, 2016.
>

In addition to the work being done on the unity commission, former Sanders supporters and new voices need to be represented on the leadership teams, reformers say.

Just last month, Perez removed Zogby and others from their posts on the executive committee. The move angered a lot of progressives in the party, who accused Perez of purging people who either did not back him for his chairmanship position or backed Sanders during the primary.

“This is our party too,” said Rania Batrice, who worked for Sanders and advised the DNC during the general election. “The voices at the DNC have to be balanced.”

However, others say those pushing reforms are overlooking the progress made.

“There is nothing wrong with the Democratic Party that cannot be solved with democracy,” said Rybak, the former DNC vice chairman.

He cites the very public and drawn-out election the party went through in February to elect Perez amid other leadership posts.

“This is the most democracy we have had in party leadership in years,\" he said. \"It is a huge difference.\"

Brazile is set to appear on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos this Sunday to discuss her new book.

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